Our awesome weekend with our friends. We have 46 kids between the 5 families (27 present and adopted from 7 different countries)
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This little girl is gorgeous. Her family is sponsoring and amazing giveaway
Please go here: http://soholdfast.blogspot.com/2012/06/50-prizes-to-celebrate-50-months.html
and read about the amazing giveaway...
Mother Teresa had a great quote about orphans: “All of them are Jesus in disguise.”
Adoption is
a very difficult path to climb. Caring for orphans can be a spiritual battle.
We ask ourselves, is this what God wants? We tell ourselves, I am not equipped.
We find a million reasons why to avoid the ‘call’ because we are uncomfortable
with the pain in the stretch we have to make to adopt that child or care for
that orphan. My friends Nicole and
Joe Dewberry were faced with a decision. It all came down to this, should they
answer God’s call and risk looking like fools in the eyes of their friends? Or
do they stay put knowing that they will be safe and acceptable in the eyes of
friends and family who just watched them spend everything on the previous adoption attempt which failed due to
the 15 year old orphan saying “no.’
It is difficult to see Jesus when we don’t go to the places where He is most likely to reside. He no doubt lingers and hovers over the lost children, hurt, sick, abandoned. How can we see Him if we stay away from the orphanages, the homeless shelters or the crying orphan praying for a family? The Dewberrys have surrounded themselves with orphans in managing some hosting for NEW HORIZONS. They have intentionally traveled many times into places where Jesus would be...inside the orphanages in Ukraine (talking to children to plead with them to find families for them). I tell people all of the time, “if you want to really see Jesus and really encounter Him…then adopt!” I say this because I know. In my 5 adoptions, I have been blessed to watch Jesus relentlessly bring my children into my home. All He wanted from us was our "YES" in the choice (the call) He set in front of us. In each case He did all of the rest. This included, paperwork being delivered in Guatemala through deadly mud storms, money coming into our account to adopt while we were near bankrupt and facing foreclosure. Time and time again in prayer the Lord showed me that He was serious…serious about the orphan, serious about fashioning our family via adoption, serious and relentless in His pursuit for the orphan.
It is difficult to see Jesus when we don’t go to the places where He is most likely to reside. He no doubt lingers and hovers over the lost children, hurt, sick, abandoned. How can we see Him if we stay away from the orphanages, the homeless shelters or the crying orphan praying for a family? The Dewberrys have surrounded themselves with orphans in managing some hosting for NEW HORIZONS. They have intentionally traveled many times into places where Jesus would be...inside the orphanages in Ukraine (talking to children to plead with them to find families for them). I tell people all of the time, “if you want to really see Jesus and really encounter Him…then adopt!” I say this because I know. In my 5 adoptions, I have been blessed to watch Jesus relentlessly bring my children into my home. All He wanted from us was our "YES" in the choice (the call) He set in front of us. In each case He did all of the rest. This included, paperwork being delivered in Guatemala through deadly mud storms, money coming into our account to adopt while we were near bankrupt and facing foreclosure. Time and time again in prayer the Lord showed me that He was serious…serious about the orphan, serious about fashioning our family via adoption, serious and relentless in His pursuit for the orphan.
So, I have
the privilege in this season to watch Jesus as He is moving mountains for the
Dewberry family. Let me share what
I have seen in the month and a half that I have known this family.
I was
heading to T4 adoption conference in NC, as my role as Project Hopeful’s NC State Associate with
Traci Heim the FIG (Family in the Gap-director). The Monday prior to the
conference I had a deep desire to network over dinner the night before the
actual event. I organized a meetup at a restaurant. Six of us arrived late to
the meetup. There were 6 seats exactly still available in the table of 20 I had
reserved. This alone was a miracle as the attendance could have been 6 people
or 60..I guessed. After dinner, I met Nicole and her sister Denise who were at
the table. They had been talking to Julia McKenzie my dear friend. As I sat down with
Nicole, in that very moment she said “this is the little girl we are adopting.”
She had literally just discovered through a text with her husband that they
were going to move forward and adopt her. At Project Hopeful we advocate for
families to adopt HIV+ children along with other special needs. Nicole hadn’t
ever spoken to families who had adopted HIV+ children. Now she was surrounded by several
Mothers all weekend. Also, Nicole lived within miles of my house (which was
incredible).
Nicole
explained her story. First she made us aware that she literally had no funds
but that this adoption could move very quickly because she had her dossier
already in the country due to the recent adoption attempt. We tried to brainstorm different ways
to make money for her adoption. We tried a podcast. I begged for my friends to
give to Taylor’s account for Mother’s Day. Nicole and Joe had a plan for a bike
marathon, a walk, a run. Nicole's sister Denise thought of several ideas. We brainstormed a million ideas-nothing seemed to be working. On Mother’s
Day we got together at my house. All the while I knew that Jesus was going to
show up for the funds but didn't know HOW. We kept saying, we don’t know how, but just wait and see. On Memorial
Day we (Julia and I) prayed over Joe and Nicole as if there were no
tomorrow. We read the scripture in
John 14: 13-14 that the Lord had placed on Nicole’s heart and mouth:
John
14:13-14
And I will do whatever you ask in my
name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my
name, and I will do it..
We
proclaimed that scripture as truth that day. We were bold and specifically asked
that this adoption would not only be fully funded but that there would be
overflow for other children to be adopted. The next day we received word that
the Dewberry’s had a court date (with basically all of their funds needing to be raised
in 2 weeks). There were many times that Nicole was very discouraged and
convinced that she may not be able to go to adopt her daughter. She texted her
discouragement. She emailed her uncertainty…and she continued on in spite of
her fear. On one of those desparate days I said..”hey why don’t you come over
tomorrow and I’ll make a video. Sometimes people really respond, sometimes they
don’t” I only make these videos because the Lord impressed upon my heart very
clearly to ‘show’ the amazing mothers in my life through video.
We made the
videos and simultaneously could feel momentum growing. We had believed this
would be a nailbiter but the Lord would be 'right on time'. People started blogging even
before our videos were up. Then people responded to the videos and blog posts, and now we have
matching grants and giveaways and the outpouring of the adoption community and
Christian friends. The Dewberrys
are seeing God and we all are watching in awe….Ten for Orphans became involved. There is now a
massive give away (with a MacBook) and grant match which includes her sister Denise’s giveaway. And a different Julia who had a miraculous matching grant . There are still funds to raise so please continue to share.
One of my
posts about a week ago said “Come on church. This family needs to see that you
can be the hands and feet of God.” With all of the complaining that so many of
us do about the inability of the Church to respond, we are seeing the opposite.
The Gospel is being activated with children being saved and God revealing
Himself and God’s people are moving.
As we
venture closer to wanting to see “Jesus in disguise” and as we draw closer to the orphan I pray that the Dewberry
story and the ‘suddenness’ of God’s response is something we do not quickly
forget. I pray that the next
family that is weary and has lost hope, is able to see as each one of us MOVES for
them understanding that we are called to act for Jesus. Joe and Nicole are
risking looking like fools, but in this position of being a fool for Jesus,
they are also shining a lens on the magnificence of how alive Christ is today, through
His church..through YOU, God is glorified!!!! Sometimes it takes a willingness to
be made a fool to glorify God. Today, I pray that we open our eyes bigger and
wider and are bold enough to uncomfortably run to places where Jesus would be
found, in the orphanages that house the HIV and down syndrome children, in the dumps, in the smelly third world hospitals, where abandoned children wait along with Jesus for us to come.
If we want to see Jesus clearly, obviously and suddenly…run (don’t walk) into
answering the call to minister to the orphan…Give now! Act Now! Shout Send Me!
And Go!
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